{"id":567539,"date":"2026-07-25T12:59:18","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T12:59:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/567539\/"},"modified":"2026-07-25T12:59:18","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T12:59:18","slug":"one-of-the-last-of-its-kind-in-ireland-the-leinster-model-flying-club-in-pictures-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/567539\/","title":{"rendered":"One of the last of its kind in Ireland: The Leinster Model Flying Club in pictures \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Every Monday evening, passersby in Phoenix Park will notice a crusade of model aircraft taking to the sky, as members of the Leinster Model Flying Club demonstrate their unique hobby. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cWe fly on Monday evenings, and then there\u2019s guys who fly during the week as well,\u201d says Stuart Batt, secretary of the club.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Founded in 1972, the club now has 47 members, mostly adults, although some participants invite their children along to partake in the fun. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cYou get people from all different walks of life \u2013 bus drivers, taxi drivers, accountants, solicitors, all sorts of men from different walks of life who just are interested in the hobby and they rub up their hands and say, yeah,\u201d says Batt.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The planes used by the club members range from smaller, nonelectric models to larger units controlled by transistors. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cThere\u2019d be like small planes that you could hold in your hand up to ones which could be 3ft wide, 4ft long,\u201d Batt adds. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Among the longest-standing pillars of the club is Frank Boughton, who remembers the model plane scene before it relied on modern technology. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cIt\u2019s gone from rubber bands and tissue to high-tech computerised stuff,\u201d says Boughton. \u201cI was born in 1947, so I\u2019ve been involved in the models, I suppose, maybe from the mid-1950s, building keel craft models, which were just boxes, bounce wood.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cI would be probably one of the last groups that would be interested in taking a plan and cutting timber and putting it all together,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The Leinster Model Flying Club is one of the last of its kind in Ireland. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cThere were a couple of clubs in Dublin. They\u2019ve largely gone now,\u201d says Boughton. <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"A model aircraft belonging to Stuart Batt, secretary of the Leinster Model Flying Club. All photographs: Nick Bradshaw\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/4H3RCBKCRFA7LALY76OGH2XHBU.JPG\"   width=\"800\" height=\"533\"\/>A model aircraft belonging to Stuart Batt, secretary of the Leinster Model Flying Club. All photographs: Nick Bradshaw <img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"Frank Boughton\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/XMA5F7A6DRFIBEUT33EQ5CDWZQ.JPG\"   width=\"800\" height=\"533\"\/>Frank Boughton <img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"Stuart Batt at home\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/JENM3FTSNNE4LJCOESE2EGWSAQ.JPG\"   width=\"800\" height=\"533\"\/>Stuart Batt at home <img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"Father and son Eddie and Nathan Kenny from Clonee\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/PUKUTLS4TVAENCDFJ25BLGS4ZM.JPG\"   width=\"800\" height=\"533\"\/>Father and son Eddie and Nathan Kenny from Clonee <img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"A model aircraft\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/46NZ2EY2PBDLPPYS3576RBVMKM.JPG\"   width=\"800\" height=\"533\"\/>A model aircraft <img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"Leinster Model Flying Club at Phoenix park\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/VDEGISUV5NAHHIGXUHY4JNTBDQ.JPG\"   width=\"800\" height=\"533\"\/>Leinster Model Flying Club at Phoenix park <img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"Leinster Model Flying Club\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/KHX6IKWCDFAD3HCM6CIP36IGCU.JPG\"   width=\"800\" height=\"533\"\/>Leinster Model Flying Club <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Every Monday evening, passersby in Phoenix Park will notice a crusade of model aircraft taking to the sky,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":567540,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,61,60,29685,976],"class_list":["post-567539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-phoenix-park","tag-weekendreview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=567539"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567539\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/567540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=567539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=567539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=567539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}